Kurds protest as Turkish leader Erdogan meets the Pope

[Anthea]

Turkey detains nearly 600 for opposing Syrian offensive

Turkey has so far detained 573 people for social media posts and protests criticizing its military offensive in Syria, the government said on Monday

The crackdown, which has extended to the national medical association, has deepened concerns about free speech under President Tayyip Erdogan, who has criticized opponents of the military intervention as “traitors”.

Turkey last month launched an air and ground offensive, dubbed Operation Olive Branch, against the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria’s northwestern Afrin region. Authorities have repeatedly warned they would prosecute those opposing, criticizing or misrepresenting the incursion.

“Since the start of Operation Olive Branch, 449 people have been detained for spreading terrorist propaganda on social media and 124 people detained for taking part in protest action,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The operation has been widely supported by Turkey’s mainly pro-government media and by most political parties, with the exception of the pro-Kurdish opposition.

Last week, a prosecutor ordered the detention of 11 senior members of the Turkish Medical Association, including its chairman, after the organization criticized the incursion, saying: “No to war, peace immediately”.

Erdogan criticized the body as traitors. Detention orders were issued for another 13 people for supporting the medics.

Three of the doctors were later released on probation, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.

“There are laws that prohibit the glorification of terrorism, support for terrorism through propaganda and media. The prosecutors are implementing the laws,” Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, told reporters in Istanbul at the weekend.

Ankara considers the U.S.-backed YPG, which controls Afrin, to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast since 1984.

Turkey is in the midst of a widening crackdown that began after a failed coup attempt in July 2016. Some 50,000 people have been jailed and 150,000 sacked or suspended from their jobs.

Critics, including rights groups and some Western allies, say Erdogan is using the coup as a pretext to muzzle dissent. The latest arrests have also drawn criticism from the European Union.

Turkey says its measures are necessary due to the gravity of the security threats it faces.

Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Dominic Evans; Editing by David Dolan and Janet Lawrence

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mide ... SKBN1FP109

[Anthea]

Kurds protest as Turkish leader meets pope
By FRANCES D'EMILIO Associated Press

Paying the first Vatican visit by a Turkish head of state in 59 years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Monday with Pope Francis to discuss the status of Jerusalem, human rights and refugees while Kurdish and Italian protesters clashed with police a short distance from Vatican City.

Police in riot gear blocked the protesters, estimated by officers to number about 150, near Rome’s Tiber River as they tried to get closer to the Vatican. One protester suffered a bloody gash on his head in the scuffle. Police said another was detained.

“I am surprised the pope is willing to meet with a person like that, a dictator, an assassin, with blood on his hands,” said Said Durson, who was among the demonstrators.

Turkey last month launched a military offensive in a Kurdish-held enclave in Syria. The Turkish government says the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia there is a terrorist organization and an extension of Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey.

Both the Turkish and Vatican sides described the private talks as cordial. Francis and Erdogan have made plain their concern over the Trump administration’s decision two months ago to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Erdogan, in an interview with the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa on Sunday, said he and the pope already had talked by telephone about the Jerusalem issue and said both of them favored working to maintain the status quo for the city considered holy by three religions.

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/02/05/ ... eets-pope/